


i wasn't meant to hear

by bananannabeth



Series: things you said when... [6]
Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 02:33:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13261794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bananannabeth/pseuds/bananannabeth
Summary: If Piper didn't know any better, she'd think that Jason was avoiding her.





	i wasn't meant to hear

 

Piper was usually so persuasive, and Jason was usually so sweet, it normally took her no time at all to crack him. One well timed please or a perfectly placed brush of her hand across his shoulders and he caved, spilling whatever information she was after. Not that she ever used this power with anything but good intentions: she did it when her boyfriend was stressed, or when he was refusing to ask for help despite being obviously overwhelmed.

 

But something was different this time. Jason was being obviously cagey, and he was working so hard lately that she almost felt like he was avoiding her. But of course he wouldn’t do that - this was Jason, after all, the sappiest boyfriend imaginable.

 

It had been weeks since they’d had any quality time though, and he couldn’t quite seem to meet her eye anymore. Piper was getting genuinely worried that she’d done something wrong, but every time she tried to ask, Jason just brushed her concerns aside.

 

* * *

 

 

She found him in the dining pavilion in the middle of the day, poring over what looked like aerial photos of New Rome.

 

“Hey,” she said, dropping a kiss on the crown of his head and sliding onto the bench beside him. “What are you up to?”

 

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and sighed. “Trying to figure out where we’re going to fit everything in New Athens. Annabeth wants the library to be huge, but I think we need to downsize it to fit the cafe…”

 

Piper chuckled. “Good luck convincing her of that.”

 

“Hopefully she’ll see sense. I thought maybe looking at some photos of New Rome could be inspiring, but it’s actually just…” Jason trailed off, dragging a hand down his face. He shook his head, clearing it, and then blinked at her. “I’m sorry Pipes, I have to go talk to her about this - can we catch up after dinner?”

 

“Oh.” She was taken aback, but tried to quickly recover. “Yeah, of course. No problem.”

 

He smiled and pecked her cheek. “Thanks, babe. I’ll see you soon.”

 

And then he gathered up his things, swung a leg over the bench and walked off, leaving Piper staring after him.

 

* * *

 

 

Dinner came and went, and still no Jason. As soon as he finished eating he took off, talking to Annabeth in hushed tones. Piper saw the other girl throw a worried glance over her shoulder before the two of them disappeared from view. Trying to stamp down her annoyance, Piper got up and walked across the pavilion to where Percy was scoffing down his dinner.

 

“What are they planning?” she asked, skipping all pleasantries.

 

Percy looked up at her with a mouthful of food, eyes wide and cheeks puffed out. “Wha?”

 

“Jason,” she said emphatically, sliding onto the seat opposite him. “And Annabeth. What are they doing?”

 

“Planning stuff for New Athens?” Percy said with a shrug. He took a gulp of water to wash down his mouthful.

 

Piper twisted her hands together in her lap. “I think it’s more than that. Jason’s been acting really weird lately.”

 

When she looked at Percy he was frowning. “What do you mean?”

 

“It’s like…” She hesitated, but Percy’s earnest expression prompted her to continue. “It’s like he’s avoiding me.”

 

Percy laughed. “Why would Jason be avoiding you?”

 

It was her turn to shrug. “I don’t know, but it feels like he is. And he’s been talking about New Rome a lot lately, and today I caught him looking at pictures of it -”

 

“Research, for New Athens,” Percy interrupted. “Annabeth was looking at them too.”

 

Piper’s patience evaporated and she laid her hands flat on the table, leaning right across it as she said, “Yeah, but he looked sad, Percy. Like, ‘I miss it and I want to go home’, sad.”

 

Percy blinked at her. “ _Home_? You think he wants to go back there?”

 

Piper bit her bottom lip. “I don’t know. But I wouldn’t blame him, I mean, he grew up there, he has a lot of friends there…”

 

“He has a lot of friends here,” Percy said nonchalantly, recovered from his momentary panic. “He’s not going anywhere.”

 

“How can you be so sure?” Piper asked desperately.

 

“Trust me, Pipes. Jason’s not going to leave you.”

 

She wished she could believe him.

 

* * *

 

 

Two hours later and Jason and Annabeth still hadn’t reappeared. Fed up with waiting, Piper left her cabin without a word and made the short trip to the Big House to see what they were up to. It didn’t take her long to find them; the door to Chiron’s office was ajar, and she could hear Jason speaking.

 

“What if she doesn’t understand, though?” he was saying. He sounded tired.

 

Alarm bells rang in Piper’s mind that this was not a conversation she should be hearing, but she was too curious to pay them any heed. She crept up the hall and waited by the door, listening in.

 

“Give her some credit, Jason,” Annabeth said.

 

“I just… this is a big risk, how do I know I’m making the right decision?”

 

“As Piper would say, you have to trust your gut instinct.”

 

“I’m not very good at that,” he muttered. Piper could imagine exactly how his eyebrows were creasing, the pinch of his lips as he frowned.

 

“You’re getting better,” Annabeth replied. “I think you’re on the right track here.”

 

Piper’s breath caught in her throat. She had no idea what they were talking about, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t good.

 

Jason didn’t sound appeased. “How do I tell her without making her cry? If she cries I’m going to cry, and that’s just going to -”

 

Ever practical, Annabeth replied, “You can’t blame her for crying, Jason, this is going to be a huge shock.”

 

Piper’s stomach twisted. What could Jason tell her that was going to make her that upset?

 

He sounded slightly closer when he next spoke. “I don’t know, I think she’s getting suspicious. She saw me looking at photos today.”

 

She heard the sound of rustling paper and then Annabeth, right on the other side of the door. “You’ve got the New Athens cover story though, right?”

 

The door handle moved slightly as Annabeth grasped the other side. Piper tried to move backwards, mentally calculating which room she could reach and hide in quickest. As soon as she decided to go left, however, her foot caught on a loose floorboard and she toppled down with a yelp.

 

Annabeth flung open the door and stared at her. “Piper?”

 

Jason appeared over her shoulder, quickly brushing past and holding out a hand to help her up. “Pipes, are you okay? What are you -” His face fell. “Were you listening?”

 

Back on her feet, Piper dropped his hand immediately. “I…” She considered lying. And then she considered the fact that this was Annabeth, the smartest person she’d ever met, and Jason, who she could never, ever lie to. “Yeah. And it’s okay.”

 

Her friends exchanged a confused glance. “It is?” Jason asked.

 

“Yeah,” Piper said breathlessly. “Of course it’s okay, I want you to be happy, and if moving back to New Rome is going to make you happy then that’s just what you have to do, and of course I’m going to miss you so much every single day and it’s going to suck not having you here but I’ll still love you, even if - even if you don’t love me back.”

 

Tears were falling down her cheeks, and she quickly tried to wipe them away on her sleeves, but they kept on coming.

 

Annabeth and Jason looked baffled. “What are you talking about?” Annabeth asked.

 

“About you leaving,” Piper wailed hopelessly. “Going back to New Rome. Without me.”

 

When Annabeth laughed, Piper was actually offended. She clapped Jason on the shoulder and said, “I’ll let you take this one.” She pulled Piper into a quick hug before leaving without another word.

 

Jason watched her shut the front door behind her before he turned back to Piper. “Pipes, what are you talking about? Where is this coming from?”

 

“From you! You’ve been avoiding me and keeping secrets for weeks, and it’s obvious how much you miss New Rome, and it’s obvious you’re not happy with me anymore -” She trailed off as Jason gently cupped her chin and lifted her face up, so she was looking him in the eye.

 

“Piper, I’m so sorry I’ve made you feel that way. It’s not like that at all,” he said sincerely.

 

She sniffled. “It’s not?”

 

“No, it’s not. Come here.” He pulled her into a tight hug. When he sighed she felt it reverberate through her whole torso. “I’m sorry.”

 

“What’s going on then? I know it’s not just New Athens, I heard Annabeth call it a cover story,” she said insistently.

 

Jason pushed back. He looked down at her for a few seconds before muttering a quiet curse and pushing his glasses up his nose. “I was going to surprise you,” he began slowly.

 

“Surprise me?”

 

“Yeah, I wanted to - want to, if you, if you’re still interested, I mean, you might not be, but I… I want to take you to New Rome. With me. The two of us, together. And I was going to…” His entire face had flushed a light pink hue.

 

Piper would have laughed if she hadn’t been so nervous. “What?”

 

“I was planning to propose to you,” he blurted out in a rush.

 

She gasped, both hands flying to cover her mouth. “What?!”

 

“It was going to be this big thing, I was going to say we were going for research but then I was going to take you out for dinner and to the best vantage point in the whole city and I had this big speech about how it used to be my home but my new home is with you, and -”

 

Piper silenced him with a crushing kiss. She threw her arms around Jason’s neck and kissed him with all the passion she could muster. When they parted her face was as pink as his.

 

“Don’t tell me anymore,” she said, “or you’ll ruin the surprise.”

 

His eyes lit up, and he laughed. “You - you still want to go?”

 

“Of course I still want to go! I can’t believe you even have to ask!”

 

“Even though it’s not a surprise? Even though I’ve been treating you so badly you thought I was going to break up with you?”

 

Piper laughed lightly and brushed the tip of her nose against his. “Jason Grace, I think you still have a few surprises in store for me.”

 

He kissed her, softer than before, whispering against her lips, “You’ll just have to wait and see.”

 

She decided right then that patience was going to be her new virtue. And if it was Jason she was waiting for, Piper could probably wait forever. 

 

 


End file.
